expedition_retirement | The Civil Rights struggle (Reply)

The last time we passed through Topeka, Kansas, we paid a visit to the Equality House, owned by the non-profit organization Planting Peace. Located across the street from the Westboro Baptist Church, the Equality House is positive reminder that hate is not the final answer, and that good people can and should confront bigotry and hatred. We had also wanted to stop at the Brown v. Board of Education National Historical Park on that trip, but we weren't there during the hours they were open, and so we had to skip it.

This time we made a point of visiting Brown v. Board of Education National Historical Park. Housed in the former Monroe Street School, which was one of the segregated Topeka public schools that formed the basis for the court case in Brown v. Board of Education, this site tells the story of that landmark Supreme Court decision and highlights its role in the broader fight for civil rights. This "park" is really more of a museum, with two primary exhibit galleries. The first tells the story of school segregation, from the doctrine of "separate but equal" that arose out of the 1896 Supreme Court decision in Plessy v. Ferguson, to the various court cases supported by the NAACP to challenge this principle. Five of those cases, from four states (Kansas, South Carolina, Virginia, and Delaware) and the District of Columbia, were combined into a single case for appeal to the Supreme Court. NAACP lawyer Thurgood Marshall (later appointed as a justice on the Supreme Court) used psychological research to argue that separate was inherently unequal and that segregation, in and of itself, placed minorities at a disadvantage. This argument was so persuasive that the Supreme Court ruling in Brown v. Board of Education was a unanimous 9-0 holding that separate but equal was unconstitutional.

The other gallery showed the legacy of the decision, placing it in the broader context of the Civil Rights movement of the 1950s and 1960s. Even after the Supreme Court issued its decision, the fight to desegregate schools was far from over. Over and over again, local authorities fought back and resisted efforts to end segregation. In some cases, entire public school systems closed rather than desegregate. In other cases, the federal government had to step in to enforce desegregation. Progress was (and continues to be) slow and incremental. This museum is a reminder of how long and difficult the struggle has been, and stands as a beacon for what could be, even as hard fought gains are slowly eroded away.

From the street, the building looks like what it used to be, a modest neighborhood elementary school. Except for the NPS sign on the lawn, it would be easy to pass by without any idea of the role this building played in our history. The side of a nearby building has been painted as a giant mural celebrating the Civil Rights movement. Somehow, standing here in this moment seemed important, to witness this piece of American history, and to understand its importance in light of current events.